Waking up when you don't get enough sleep?

Another thread from me, I know I know, everybody let out a huge sigh. Anyways, as I'm getting closer to going primal (trying to plan this all out, convince myself and my family to do it, etc.), I keep coming up with questions. The newest pressing question is what do you do to wake yourself up if you don't get enough sleep? I'm 18 years old, and like most teenagers, I stay up late involved in one form of shenanigans or another. But, I also get up "early" at 6 to go to work. This usually leaves me with 6 or less hours, sometimes as low as 3 and as high as 7 or 8. However, when I don't get enough sleep, I tend to turn to very non-primal forms of waking myself up (nicotine, sugar, soda, copious amounts of coffee, etc.). What is a PRIMAL way of waking yourself up? I recall Mark saying to only drink for personal enjoyment, and not to depend on it for waking yourself up.

when i was a teenager i needed LOTS of sleep. wasn't til my 20s that i started to not sleep much. erm, there may have been colombian stimulants involved.

i was a night crawler for most of my life. i've cured this by making myself get up early. even on days off i am usually up by 7. because of that i am too bushed to be up all night.

As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.

The Primal way of waking yourself up is to get yourself the fuck to bed earlier when you need to be up in the morning. Get used to it.

Couldn't have said it better.

OP, I know you're only a youngun' but it's called growing up. Don't try to "fix" the tiredness problem in the morning, stop it from happening in the first place. Planning ahead. Being responsible. I know. Boring grown up stuff. Deal, kiddo.

Just have to listen to your body, SLEEP when you can. I'm 19 so I totally get the whole teenager thing, but I'm learning to listen to my body more. Besides, half the things we stay up for are bullsh!t lol. Nothing wrong with some black coffee, but it's not a sleep replacement.

I have chronic insomnia (it's after 3am as I post this), and have had it since I was a teen. I take many naps to make up for sleep deprived nights. I love naps. I have also kind of fallen in love with my insomnia.

I'm 19, and I have to agree that it's tricky trying to balance sleep with social life (that IS why you're up, right?); it didn't take long to realise that those extra hours of texting girls into the night wasn't really worth it the next morning, because I have a tendency to do it every night. Staying up 'til the early hours when I'm out and about, I'm cool with; it's face-to-face and occasional, not chronic and through digital screens / artificial lighting.

You need to realise that more hours of sleep at the right time (lie-ins won't cut it) is infinitely more important than more hours of digital entertainment. There's always time for that the next day; respect your body's needs, it knows what's best for you.

Get yourself an alarm clock that mimicks the sunrise - it'll slowly get brighter until you wake up. That'll help. They not really affordable though. You're better off playing Amish in the evenings so you don't get yourself distracted - force yourself to turn off the tv computer phone at 9 or 10pm. Or tell your mom to treat you like you're 14 again and give you limits.